Building a green roof is a great idea for improving your roof along with improving the environment. There are plenty of benefits of building a green roof. One of them major benefits of building a green roof is that it is keep your home cool and save up your energy cost of cooling your home. However building a green roof is not that easy and you have to be very careful while building a green roof. You have to make proper research and check the condition of your roof before you build a green roof. Building a green roof on your existing roof will increase the weight of your roof and not all the roofs are meant to take all the weight. If there is excessive weight on your roof then chances are there of roof collapse. Hence be careful as you don’t want your roof to collapse. Also there are only certain plants which can be grown on your roof, so check which plants you are going to install on your roof. To guide you further with building a green roof, here are some of the essential; things to consider.

Hire engineer to check your roof

It’s very essential that before you start to build a green roof, hire an engineer and get your structure checked by him. Have an inspection of your home done before building a green roof. Check out what is the appropriate weight for your roof and whether it can handle the additional weight of plant or not. You also need to check the restrictions in your area regarding building a green roof. There can be need of permit for building a green roof. If there is any need then you need to comply with such need before building a green roof. There will be approximately 20 pounds of extra weight on your roof, hence check whether your roof can handle it or not.

Check for the slope

If you are building a green roof, you need to make sure that your roof has a slope. Building a green roof will have water on your roof and there is no slope then the weather will get clogs up and will not run naturally. This can cause your roof to get damaged. Hence go for building a green roof only if your roof has a slope. The ideal slope is of 40 degrees for water to run off naturally.

Provide proper drainage

There is an extreme need of drainage on your roof if you are going to build a green roof. Make sure to provide adequate guttering all way round the roof. The lowest point of your roof will need a gutter which should be connected with the downspout which should make its way to the storm sewer.

Watering your roof

This is very important step of building a green roof and if you are not comfortable doing it yourself, you better leave the job with the professionals only. There should be a water proof layer installed on your roof to save it from water damage.